Book Review: There is No Good Card for This by Kelsey Crowe, Ph.D. and Emily McDowell

Wow.  I only blogged three times last year, and one of those was to share our hummus recipe.  It was a rough year for many reasons, and I've been shaking it off little by little and getting back into doing the things I want to do, which includes writing blog posts.  I think I've picked a good topic to get me back into the groove.

Sometime before Christmas I saw a Facebook ad for Emily McDowell's "Everyday Bravery" pins, and I loved her style.  I headed over to her website and looked at just about everything.  Her items (especially her Empathy cards) are based in reality and are funny, blunt, and touching - sometimes all at once!  I placed an order for a few pins and a magnet (although I could have ordered tons more) and saw a notification about a book that was about to be released:

 
I read the description and was hooked.  Who among us doesn't feel lost when someone near us is experiencing loss, hardship, and pain?  What do we do?  What should we say?  Is "I'm sorry" okay?  I pre-ordered the book on Amazon and couldn't wait for it to arrive.

When the book came, I was impressed with the quality of it.  Not just the stuff inside - the actual book.  It's sturdy and will withstand many readings, and the pages... the pages are so thick that I always checked the page number to make sure I only turned one page!  The paper is a little glossy, so if you're going to make notes in the margins, you'll want to choose something that won't smudge.  Slick Writers are my go-to pens for slippery papers.

Now for the content.  It reads like you're sitting around the kitchen table (probably with a glass of wine) talking to two good friends who just happen to know an awful lot about empathy.  The authors, Kelsey Crowe, Ph.D. and Emily McDowell, have been through some really rough times, and they've used their experiences (and the experiences of many others) to come up with ways to help folks feel useful when their loved ones, friends, and acquaintances are going through their own rough times.  They discuss what empathy is (and how it differs from sympathy), how we can deal with some of our baggage before reaching out to someone else, how crucial listening is (and how to do it properly), what to say and not say, different methods of saying those things, and so much more.

One of the chapters is called "Small Gestures Make a Big Difference," and this concept touched me the most.  Did you know that we don't have to be everything for everyone all the time?  We can do little things here and there, and they might just be enough to help someone over a rough patch.  Recently a friend posted on my Facebook wall saying she was thinking about me because she knew that day would be difficult.  It was so sweet of her to do that, and her message really did help.  This book has loads of examples of things like that, which should get your mind going on how you can inject a little happiness and kindness into others' lives.

There are illustrations, bright colors, Emily's fun handwriting, and sample conversations to help drive the points home and to make the material not feel like a textbook.  It's interesting as well as being incredibly useful, and I plan on referring to it often as I work toward fixing my tendency to try to fix things.

If you'd like to get the book, click here for the item's Amazon page.  I hope you'll love it as much as I do and that it helps you as much as it's helping me.

Go forth and be kind!

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I know my blog is supposed to be about jewelry making, knitting, and other crafty things.  I'll get back to that with my next post, hopefully next week.  I have lots of tools to review and new designs to show you!  If you'd like to know where I'll be when and what I'll be doing there, please check out my website.

A non-blog

July has been an extremely busy month.  On the 6th we had our entire HVAC system replaced.  It was an oil furnace, and we switched to natural gas.  You can imagine the amount of scheduling and planning all that amounted to!  We had the oil tank removed last Wednesday, and we were extremely lucky that there were no leaks in it.  For those of you who have never seen an oil tank before, here's ours:

That orange stuff is the plastic coating that they painted the tank with to help keep it from corroding.

We wanted to have all of the bushes removed because they were starting to die and look crappy, so while the guys were there with their big digger machine they just ripped them all out.  Yay!  We had those picked up a few days later.  Now we have to decide what to plant there.  I would like part of the area to be a raised garden for basil.  I don't know if there's enough sun there, but we can give it a try.  For the rest of it, we're thinking Dwarf Korean Lilacs.

On Friday night we got a new kitten:

Meet Clinchfield (Clinch for short, named after a railroad because that's what my husband likes to do), who was not getting along with the dog at his former home.  He's almost four months old and is settling in pretty well here, except today he's hyper.  We went to the vet, and they had to give him some meds for ear mites, then they had to give him some meds to relieve the pain and irritation of having his ears cleaned.  They said it should make him a bit sleepy, but he's loopy and high instead.  He spent some time pawing in the water bowl, splashing it everywhere.  The vet assures me that he'll calm down.  Soon, I hope.  Pixel hopes so, too, because he's been getting jumped on a fair amount.

There have been other things going on, too.  A Loose Bead Society rummage sale, a coupon workshop, a Loose Bead Society meeting, seeing Ant-Man at a private screening through my credit card (for free!!), and other stuff.

All this activity (along with bad allergies) is why I didn't blog last week.  I don't really have anything to blog about this week, either, but I didn't want it to go another week.

I have been working on a few things, but nothing is complete.  Here's a paw print bracelet with peanut beads that I'm making to match another one of my tops:

This next piece will have to remain a mystery:

It's something in process from my SDN15 technique.  I'll show it to you when it's all done.

And when I was at my mother's this weekend I brought all this home:

Little silverware?  Why?  I keep seeing neat jewelry made with silverware on Pinterest (you can see the ones I like on my Flatware jewelry and other creations board) and wanted to give it a shot.  I have a book with some flatware projects, and now I have some expendable flatware, so now I can!  Most of these are my baby silverware, but there are a few other interesting things in there, including a spoon from Lucerne.

I'll keep you posted!

Now I must go.  The kitten keeps going in the kitchen sink to get at the water bowl and the bowl stand.  I've just taken the stand outside so it can dry, but he keeps going in the...

CLINCHFIELD!  GET OUTTA THE SINK!!

I may have to sit on him.

Sickness, a warmth-stealing cat, and a call for show info

Happy Friday!  Today is my normal blog day, but I've had a cold since Wednesday, so I'm going to skip blogging and curl up on the couch and watch "Pocahontas" with a cat or two.

Steve brought out the heated blanket for me so I can stay cozy, but if I'm not careful I lose my seat to Fe:

Since the "Christmas selling season" is upon us, I'd like to open my blog for readers to post shows they're doing, like I did for Karen and Jenn.  E-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz with a few pictures of what you do (along with descriptions of what your items are), as much show information as you can give me (day, time, address, show website, etc.), and your contact information (such as your website, Facebook page, e-mail address).  That will help get the word out about your shows, and it'll give me a break while I'm recovering from this cold and gearing up for my own shows.

Have a great weekend!  I'm off to crawl under that blanket.

Breaking radio silence (and B&B Show class submissions)

Boy, when I take a break, I take a break!  My last post was on July 3rd, exactly five weeks ago.  Since then, much has happened.  We got a new stove, Steve's parents came to visit, I taught a class, two dear friends lost their pets due to old age (one of them was the dog I had with Dave - you can read about him a bit in my quote book post), and much more.

Above it all, though, I haven't been feeling well.  There have been many nights of insomnia and a fair amount of overall pain.  I knew when I stopped writing that I needed to get to work on the Bead&Button Show class submissions (due 8/8/2014 - so early!!), but I didn't feel up to working for long periods of time.  I couldn't stay awake during the day, and I couldn't sleep at night.  Yes, the solution should be to force myself to not nap, then I'd be able to sleep at night, but that doesn't work for me.  The culmination of this was about a week and a half ago when I did not sleep one wink the entire night.  It just about drove me out of my mind, and Steve has been extra extra supportive.  I'm still really tired, but the submissions are done and delivered to Kalmbach, so I have no deadlines looming over me.

I've made a number of things this last five weeks - more than just the class submissions.  I'm looking forward to showing them to you in the coming weeks.  I'm still not going to blog every day, though.  I think that put too much pressure on me.  I am going to try to post at least twice a week like I did at the end of last year.  That seems doable.

The B&B Show class submissions wouldn't have been so hard except that I wanted to submit a bunch of new things, and I didn't have tutorials written for them yet.  That is one of the requirements - they want to see the physical instructions as well as a sample.  That meant a lot of picture taking and editing as well as a lot of writing.

Here are the classes I submitted:

This is Double Decker Daisy, a modified daisy chain bracelet.  I've submitted this one before, and it's the only one out of this group that is a repeat submission.  I really like the movement as it's worn - those flower petals like to flop about like real ones do in the wind.  It uses twin seed beads or Super Duos to add some height.  The full flowers are a bit higher than the "buds" between them.
 

This one is Quadrille, a modified Right Angle Weave piece using Super Duos, Rizos, and crystals.  I've blogged about it before (this post has another picture of the above bracelet).  Steve thought that my official picture should show the whole bracelet, so he arranged it in a V, and I took a few pictures.  Looking at them on the computer, he said, "It looks like panties."  It must have been all the scalloped edges.  :)  The thing I like about this project is that there are a few different Right Angle Weave techniques in here so you're not doing the same thing over and over again.  Also, the threads between the Super Duo holes are masked with seed beads.  That makes the piece look a bit more ornate.

This is SDN15 - Dino-spine.  I really don't know what the stitch would be.  It's something I made up.  Frequent readers of my blog will recognize this one from many posts (this one is the most recent).  I'm really fond of this picture.  I was going to have all my pieces on white backgrounds, but then Steve remembered the box of petrified wood pieces that my stepfather gave him for possible use on his model railroad layout.  I think that's why he gave it to him.  It looks like a rock, but it's really petrified wood.  This page explains where petrified wood comes from, and there's an example that looks just like the above piece.  This picture not only looks neat, but it also shows the spiky nature of the bracelet really well.

I'm going to miss this bracelet.  One of the things I wanted to get done but didn't was another sample that I could give to Kalmbach so I could keep this one.  I have another one as a sample at Knot Just Beads (that's the class I taught a while ago), and it's not yet time for it to come out of the case.  Also, it doesn't fit me.  Ah, well, I guess I can live without it until October.  ::sniff::

This is Riding the Waves, a spiral rope with a bunch of different kinds of beads.  If it looks slightly familiar, than you must have read this post.  The change is the shell in the middle.  Karen Crown of Lady Crown Glass made that out of glass.  I first met Karen at the AGAB in Madison (you can see her here at the GLOW table), and I watched her make a shell at the Bead&Button Show (you can see her hard at work in this post).  After I knew I could incorporate this shell into my design, I talked with her about including shells in my kits, and I added to the instructions to explain how to do it.  Yay!  My shop page has not been updated to include the shell - hopefully I'll get to that soon.

This is The Ever-Evolving Spiral, a spiral rope technique that uses Super Duos and Rizos.  You may have seen this project here, here, and/or here.  These colors are something else, aren't they?  A friend of mine recommended them as something that would pop off the class catalog page.  She called it "Fiesta".  There's green, orange, pink, and blue.  Wow.

One thing that I found disconcerting while stitching a new sample of this design was that all 8/0 seed beads are not the same size.  That really throws a crimp in my measuring instructions, but I think I have it explained well enough.  This tutorial is so new (I finished it on Tuesday) that it hasn't made it to my shop yet.

The final one is SDN15 - Intertwined Pyramids.  Believe it or not, it starts out using the same triangle as the Dino-spine bracelet.  I really wanted this one to fit me, but it was getting late last night when I was finishing it and the instructions up, and it would have taken another 45 minutes to make one more segment so it would be big enough.  ::pout::  Oh, well.  I'll just have to make another one!

I'm planning on making earrings to match this, and I'll add those to the tutorial when I'm ready then put it on my SDN15 shop page.


Huh.  I must really like Super Duos.  Five out of my six submissions use them.  I have many more ideas bubbling around in my insomniatic head, so stay tuned to see what I'm up to next!  In the meantime, what do you think of these designs?  Would you take the classes if they're offered at B&B?

This Easter Egg looks better

Happy Easter!

We had an eventful day today.  We went out to dinner with my mother and stepfather (John) at a nice, high-end restaurant.  Dinner was pleasant, but when we got to the car we found this:

The car on the right - the one perfectly within the yellow lines - is John's.  Let's look at that from the front, shall we?

Thank goodness for iPhone cameras, huh?

The restaurant called the police and finally found the owner.  She came out and said, "I don't remember doing anything like that.  What time did you get here?" like John would have somehow wedged his car up on hers then crawled through the passenger side to get out.  She maintained that she couldn't have done that without noticing (duh) and kept trying to figure out if she arrived before we did.  Anyway, the officer said it definitely looks like the woman was at fault, but she couldn't issue a citation because it happened on private property.  Ugh.  Information was exchanged, and insurance companies will be contacted.

The damage isn't extensive, but it's the principle of the thing.  Even if she hadn't noticed the hit, wouldn't she have noticed that she was way crooked and over the line as she walked behind her car to get to the restaurant?  I guess it's good she was dim - if she had just moved her car, we wouldn't have known what happened.

Now onto to a happier, if much shorter, topic...

---

After yesterday's debacle, I decided to stitch an Easter Egg I knew would look a lot better:

This is from my Tubed Key Holiday collection.  If I'd have thought about it, I could have stitched it yesterday so I could have worn it today.  Oh, well.  Now I have it for next year, or maybe I'll put it up for sale on Etsy when the time is right.

If you're interested in any of my Tubed Key tutorials (holiday or not) or kits, all of the information can be found here.

New Quadrille earrings

Yesterday I showed you a new bracelet I made with my "Quadrille" design with purple crystals instead of purple fire polish beads.

Today I made the matching earrings:

It's good that I did because I found that I'm going to need to add a few extra Super Duos, Rizos, and seed beads just to make sure everyone has plenty.

I also stitched up samples of each of the four colorways I'll have kits for, but I will have to wait to show you until tomorrow.  I'm trying to print out instructions for the Make 'n Take event (then there are the Quadrille tutorials to print!), but my printer has suddenly decided to stop printing black.  The colors are fine, but the black is completely absent.  I'm all over the HP site and forum and am trying to find a solution that works for me.  There are many solutions, but so far none of them are working.  I really do not want to take the printhead off and physically wash it.  That sounds both icky and potentially dangerous.

This is really poor timing.

Update:  After a few more troubleshooting failures and me taking some time to relax and not think about it, I ended up doing the icky and potentially dangerous washing of the printhead.  It took two 10-minute soaks to get most of the ink out, and... it worked!  It worked.  I'm so relieved I don't even know what to say.  It's only 1:00a, so that went much better than I expected.  My hands are really filthy.  Must update blog before washing hands!  :)

On a much happier note, don't forget my Illiad-inspired challenge!  The deadline is March 31st.  You don't want to miss it!

Packing for the retreat

The retreat is tomorrow!  The retreat is tomorrow!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you must be new here, as I've been talking about it a lot the last week or longer.  "The retreat" is the Loose Bead Society spring retreat.  Every year LBS members flock to Racine, Wisconsin to the Radisson Hotel Racine Harbourwalk for three days of beading, eating, shopping, class-taking, and obligation-leaving-behind.  We start getting excited about the retreat the day after the last year's retreat.

The first year I went I decided to not stay in the hotel.  Racine is only an hour away - why pay money for the hotel?  Big mistake.  I was sick and stayed too late on Friday night because I was having too much fun.  I made it home safely, but it was way too hard to tear myself away.  I have stayed in the hotel ever since.  I miss Steve and the cats, of course, but it's nice to get away for a few days.

The hardest part of the retreat is the packing.  What to bring?  What to leave at home?  That's a problem whether you're packing for a bead retreat or a day of scrapbooking.  I think I've gotten pretty good at it.  I bring way more than I'm going to work on, but that means I'll have options.  After the retreat, I have a bunch of projects already ready to go.

I may have shown you this overnight case before:

We found it in the attic after we moved into this house.  I love it.  It's hard and trapezoidal, so I can use it as a footstool.  Because I'm short and have (many) issues, it's necessary for me to be able to put my feet up if I need to.  I have two footstools in my office - one under the computer and one under the other area of the desk where I work, and I have an ottoman in the living room.  This case has been a godsend at more than one retreat.

Another benefit of this case is that it holds an awful lot!  Let's peek inside:

The "photo" boxes in the middle hold the vast majority of my Delicas, a bunch of keys, a number of miscellaneous bezel projects, and my brick stitch samples and materials.  This section alone would give me plenty to do throughout the weekend.

On the left side I have my project bags.  This first one is a bezel project that I've been wanting to work on.  It's slightly orange and will be funky:

This next one is another bezel project using some of the same beads as the above one.  It will be in browns and taupes as requested by my Aunt Nancy:

You can't really see the colors there.  Here's a better picture:

Remember the computer keyboard innards bracelet I showed you when I first got sick?  I wasn't happy with how off-kilter it was, so I took it apart.  I very lightly adhered the two layers together, and I hope that will help (and that the adhesive won't show too much):

This is another bezel project I've been sitting on for about 2 years:

The focal is a recycled sawdust piece made by Priscilla Beads.  You can see her recycled sawdust pieces here.  I think I've shown you her things before.  Let me check.  Yup!  You can see my matched set here.  It sure would be nice to show Priscilla a finished piece at this year's Bead&Button Show!  Her booth is all the way in the back near the concession area - stop by and see her and her gorgeous pieces!

This next one is a purple/gray colorway for my Quadrille design:

I'm thinking of making kits for this design for the Madison Art Glass and Bead Show, so it's important to see if the colors I chose for this one look good.  Yeah, that's why.  It's not at all that I want a new purple/gray bracelet.  No, not at all.

This final one (whew!) is going to be a funky Cobblestone Path bracelet:

I've used these colors for an It's Got Legs bracelet (see the Fire colorway here), and I've been wanting to put this one together for a while now.

Wow.  I need about 5 retreats to make all of those pieces.  I'm also bringing along my 2014 B&B Show commemorative beads, so I can stare at them and so other people can look at them if they want to:

And finally, I'm bringing the pieces I'm donating to the Cinderella project that I discussed yesterday:

The case holds a lot, but it does not hold my Ott light (which I almost forgot to pack!) or my little Caboodle case that holds all the pliers, needles, beading mat, findings, and all the little necessities:

While I'm fairly compact when it comes to my projects, I wasn't able to do as well with the supplies needed for my stamped dominoes class.  I'll spare you the gory details.  (You're welcome)  Here's what our back hallway looks like with all of those supplies, my project supplies, and a bag of snacks/miscellaneous things:

That's not even including my clothes.  Eek!  I'm riding with two other people - I hope there's room in Judy's car for everything!

Carol is a new friend (she replaced me as Webgoddess of the Society), and this will be her first year going to the retreat.  She sent me this e-mail this morning:

Wise one,

Since I've not attended a retreat before is there anything else I should bring other than personal stuff and beading projects? and camera, of course.

Let me know if I'm missing something.

Thanks and see you tomorrow.

I don't know if the coughing has loosened something in my brain, but this was my reply:

Grasshopper,
 
It is good for you to have asked.  Wise one always dresses in layers and brings a sweater so she is neither too hot nor too cold.  She also brings one or two snacks to share with the table so none goes hungry.  Other wise ones bring nectars of the gods, as drunken beading is enjoyable.  Bring lots of gold, as there will be a shopping trip to the Funkiest of Hannahs.  While there, also bring your appetite - they lay out a bountiful appetizer/snack table.
 
Fear not if you forget something - someone will have the pair of pliers you need or a spare needle.
 
I will see you on the morrow!
 
 
-W.O.
(Wise One)

And with that, I bid you adieu.  I need to spend a little time with my husband before I abandon him for 3 days.  :)

The next few blog posts will be from the retreat!  Come back to see if I finish any of my thousand projects.

Achoo! (or, I'm taking a sick day)

Hi, all,

I hate to break my creating-and-blogging-every-day-in-2014 streak, but I'm sick.  My husband doesn't want me to work at all today, so this post is pushing it.  I keep saying, "I have too much to do!" and he keeps saying, "Sick people need to rest."  I wouldn't mind resting if I could sleep, but my nose rarely stops running, and my head is throbbing, so lying down isn't very relaxing.

To tide you over until I feel better, here's an in-process bracelet I'm stitching using the innards of that computer keyboard I showed you a while ago:

It's buckling a little in between the flowers.  It will curve around the cuff okay, but I'm not positive I'll have enough of the silicone part to reach all the way around the cuff.  I cut it bigger this time, but I guess not enough.  I may take the flower on the right out and straighten things out.

But now I need to go back to bed.  If I'm still feeling this crappy tomorrow, I'll show you some resin things I made that didn't turn out.

Tangent "review": Another way to use knitting needles

I have bad news, bad news, bad news, and good news (because there always should be some good news).

The first bad news is that I've been too busy working on the tutorial for Quadrille (if you missed that, check it out here) and the brick stitch experimenting (first post, second post, third post), and I don't have a proper review for you.  The bracelet part of the tutorial is finished.  All I have left to do is to make earrings and write the instructions for how to do that, which shouldn't take long.

The second piece of bad news is that I have zero registrations for tomorrow's Quadrille class, so it has been canceled.  If you were busy or thinking the weather was too crappy, you may have another shot at it in March or April.  I'll let you know.

The third piece of bad news is that I'm still not done with my scarf.  I have been knitting away at it, but it's just not long enough.  I'd like to be able to wrap it around my neck and still have a fair amount dangling.  Steve looked at it last night and said, "You're getting there!  Just about a foot to go!"  I almost gave him a foot.  I'll let you imagine where.

Now for the good news!  Steve brought home a present for me yesterday - a Doctor Who micro-figure.  There was one figure in the package, and you don't know what you get until you open it.  There are a few different series, and there are ten different possibilities in the one that Steve chose from.  There's the Eleventh Doctor, two different Amys, Rory, River, a Silence, a Dalek, a Cyberman, a Roman Auton, and a Vampire.  Click here if you'd like to see what they look like.  They're only about 2" high, and there is some assembly required, which I take to mean that you could make the Doctor wear the vampire's skirt if you wanted.

When I opened the package, I was a little disappointed to see it was the vampire.  She's from the fifth season "The Vampires of Venice" episode, which I don't really remember.  We'll have to watch it again.

The figure looks like it's compatible with Legos, so that opens up a whole world of possibilities.  Take her off the "DW", Tardis-looking stand and make her menace the Doctor or some other Lego figures on a Doctor Who "playset" or other Lego construction.  She has moving parts, so much menacing can be accomplished.


At this point you're probably wondering what this has to do with knitting needles.  Well, once I realized that her arms and hands move, I discovered that a size 2 Double Pointed Needle fits perfectly in her oddly shaped clutches, and now she's holding a quarterstaff.

Now I can't wait to get more of these figures.  I have five size 2 DPNs, so I can stage a mighty battle... until I need them to make socks.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I'm feeling a little loopy.  I blame lack of sleep, lack of heat, and lots of work.  Now that I can relax on the Quadrille instructions, I'm going to go knit.

Using scrapbooking tools to solve everyday problems

Last night was the Loose Bead Society's annual holiday party.  A bunch of us brought cookies (or fudge or whatever) to share.  It's always nice to see and taste things that I wouldn't normally make.  Someone brought Pizzelles - "Italian waffle cookies".  I like them because they're not as rich as other cookies and because they're very pretty.

I brought cornflake cookies.  They have marshmallows, butter, cornflakes (obviously), and green food coloring.  I don't know where we got the recipe from, but I remember eating them when I was little a long, long time ago.  Not only are they delicious, but they make your tongue green.  I'd say something about other things turning green, but I don't want to get crude.
 

The best way to store and transport cookies is in a cookie tin, right?  What I've always hated about tins is that you need to line them with wax (or parchment) paper.  For cookies that stick together (like the cornflake cookies), it's best to stick paper between layers.  The tins are nearly always round, and the papers are always square.  That means you have a bunch of paper crowding around the edges taking up valuable cookie space.

Remember that cutting board I used when I made my duct tape purse last week?  That was from my "Curvy Cutter" circle/oval cutting set.  Since I'm a procrastinator, I hadn't put it all away yet.  I decided to try cutting the wax paper with the circle cutter, and it worked!

That got me thinking of all of those commercials where they have the perfect solution to an everyday problem, so I made my own little commercial:

I have to tell you - I recorded the video once (hence the bit of stuttering at the end) and spent 2-3 hours getting it edited and in a format I could put on the blog.  I really should have quit, but I was bound and determined to get it done exactly the way I wanted it to be done.  My ingenuity and "there's more than one way to skin a cat" (catfish, not kitty cat, of course) attitude came through again, and I was successful!  I hope everyone can view it okay.

For those of you who have never heard my voice - that's not how I normally talk.  That's my "perfect solution" commercial voice.  I probably am normally that nasally, though.

To sum up what's on the video:

• I used the Curvy Cutter template to figure out what size I needed to cut
  
  
  
  
  
• I adjusted the blade tool to the right setting (the widest in this case) and set the cutter in the right track of the cutter tool (the second track)
   
  
  
  
• I moved the blade tool around the track to cut the wax paper
   
  
• I put the circle of wax paper in the tin (yes, I know this step is obvious, but by now you all know how thorough I am)
   
  

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make a large enough circle for my large tin.  I just did a search to see if there were any larger Curvy Cutters, and I found that they've discontinued the product.  I guess I've had mine a really long time, huh?  I wonder if I'll be able to find a replacement blade if I need it.

I did see that Martha Stewart Crafts has a few circle cutters, and I bet they would work just as well.  The small one cuts from 1" to 5 7/8" in 1/16" increments, and the large one cuts from 4" to 12" in 1/8" increments.

Now, I'm not advocating buying a circle cutter (or two) just for cutting wax paper to line your cookie tins, but if you're a scrapper who wants to expand the uses of your tools, this is one way you can do just that.  I'm sure there are other non-scrapping uses for circle cutters, but, frankly, the video editing has used up all of my ingenuity brain cells for the night.

Do you have any non-scrapping uses for circle cutters or other scrapping tools?  E-mail me at traci@creative-pursuits.biz and let me know!

If you've been hoping that I'd share the recipe for those tasty, tasty cookies, here you go:

Cornflake Cookies

1 stick of butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
30 large marshmallows
3 cups cornflakes
1 teaspoon green food coloring
Red sugar

Melt marshmallows and butter in a double boiler.  Add vanilla and food coloring.  Stir in cornflakes - carefully - and drop in tablespoon-sized blobs on wax paper.   Sprinkle with red sugar.  Wait to cool.  Store in the refrigerator.

The side benefit for me posting the recipe here is that if I lose it (again), I won't have to ask my mother to send it to me (for the 20th time).

Best Japanese food ever - Tsukasa of Tokyo

Yeah, I know it's Thursday, and I know I'm supposed to be reviewing books, yarns, beads, tools, and other crafty-type things.  But Saturday I have a show in Waukegan, Illinois (at St. John's United Church of Christ on McAree from 9-2 for those of you in the area).  I'm going down tomorrow to take Mom Christmas shopping and to spend the night.  I don't do mornings well, so there's no way I'd be able to get up early enough to make it to the show early enough to set up.  It's a nice tradition I have - I get to spend extra time with Mom and John, and I get to participate in a nice show.  If you're in Waukegan on Saturday, please stop and say hi.

What does this have to do with the best Japanese food ever?  Mom and I are going to shop at Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills, and Tsukasa is very close.  When Mom asked if I wanted to go shopping, I thought for a second, and then I said, "Oooh!"  Mom then said, "Oooh!" and a mutually agreed upon lunch date was formed, and our menfolk looked at us like we were crazy.  Since we had lunch there last year whilst Christmas shopping, this is another tradition I'll be looking forward to.  (Yes, I wrote "whilst".  That word isn't used near enough, like "thrice".)

Mom, John (my stepfather), and I started going to Tsukasa when they were in a strip mall a short ways down the road from where they are now.  You did not need a reservation the first few times we went, but then you did, then they were packed all of the time, then they knocked the wall down to expand, then they built their own building, then they opened another location.  They are always packed every time we go.  You don't need reservations for lunch, but it's still pretty busy.  Mom and I are always astonished at the number of businesspeople who are there for lunch.

Another tradition: we go to Tsukasa for my birthday.  Every year.  I don't remember when we started, but it was many, many years ago.  Mom and John were in Germany in 2004, and I feared that my yearly trip would be canceled.  My friend Dave stepped up and took me and four of our friends.  It was a fun time!  Thanks, Dave!

They're so busy that they lost my reservation once.  I was devastated, and I led my family and friends outside to figure out somewhere else to go (because it was crowded inside, and we couldn't hear ourselves think).  As soon as I said they didn't have our reservation, Dave walked right back in and talked with the manager.  He explained that we go every year for my birthday, and they said, "Maybe she called the wrong place."  Dave said, "She has your phone number in her phone.  Is there anything you can do?"  There was, and they were able to seat us.  I don't know how.  Again, thanks, Dave!

Why do I love Tsukasa so much?

First there's this:

You have to love any place that makes you fear for your life before you eat.

Then there's this:

After they make the fried rice, he flips it around a number of times, hopefully not spilling the contents.

Then this:

A tower of onions becomes a volcano, then a train.  Choo choo!

And then this:

That green blob in the black area at the top is piece of broccoli that I probably missed.

And finally...  Oh, sweet heaven.  Finally, there's this:

(The above pictures were taken in 2011, in case you're interested.)

First you get salad and soup, then the fried rice (which is truly the best fried rice in the entire world - no exaggeration), then the vegetables, then the meats.  If you get a combo like I do, you also get an appetizer and a dessert.  I always get vegetable tempura and pineapple.  In the above picture, the yellowish blobs are golden shrimp, which are decadent and rich and so very tasty.  It's a little bit of an acquired taste, but once you have it... let's just say I'm salivating right now in anticipation.  The meat is a filet mignon, and it's soft like butter.  You get your choice of sauces - teriyaki, ginger, and/or mustard - but I only ask for the teriyaki.  It's the best teriyaki I've ever had.  It's sweet and thick, and there I go salivating again.

So, that's my review of the best Japanese food ever made.  I have eaten at many, many Japanese places, and this one tops the lot, at least at Teppan Yaki (“Hot Steel”) cooking (according to their website).  I've not had much of their sushi, because I'm always stuffed with everything else I eat, so I can't really review that.  It is well worth the trip from Milwaukee to Vernon Hills every year for my birthday, and it's an extra special Christmas shopping treat.  If you are anywhere near Vernon Hills or Kildeer, you have to go.  (The links take you to Tsukasa's location pages.)

Yes, it's a bit pricey, but you get a lot for your money.  I should take some of my meal home, but I never do.  I practically need to be rolled out of there, and that's the best thing I think anyone could ever say about any restaurant.

And now it's time for me to go to bed and dream of golden shrimp, filet mignon, and fried rice.

WYSI (not necessarily) WYG

WYSI-who, now?

My non-geeky readers may never have heard of the term "WYSIWIG" (pronounced WIZ-EE-WIG):  What You See Is What You Get.  There's a Wikipedia entry for it, of course.  There must be a Wikipedia entry for everything.  Yes, yes there is.  Really, now.  But back to WYSIWIG.  The definition given on Wikipedia is:

The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content (text and graphics) displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, which might be a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

This is huge for programmers who create applications in code without seeing what it's going to look like.  You have to compile the program then run it, and if something doesn't look or work right, you have to tweak the program and try again.  Web developers run up against the same thing if they work in straight HTML.

Now my geeky readers are saying, "But, Traci... There are HTML editors that allow websites to be designed while seeing what it's going to look like.  And don't forget what you, yourself, programmed in for many years - Visual Basic.  You designed the screens in a WYSIWYG environment.  Hell, this blog is written in an editor where you can see the pictures along with the text.  Isn't that pretty much WYSIWYG?"

Yes, geeky readers, that is correct.  Not all of it can be done that way in HTML editors, though.  They don't always interpret things correctly, and when you display the page sometimes there's way too much space between paragraphs or not enough.  It works most of the time, and going into the code to tweak is a lot better than writing everything from scratch.

There's a whole bunch of information in that Wikipedia article - history, etymology, problems of implementation, and related acronyms.  Ooh!  A link for comparisons of HTML editors!  brb

Oh, it's just a bunch of charts listing features of quite a big list of editors.  Something for me to look into, though, because the HTML editor I've been using irritates me sometimes.

I should point out here - for those of you who don't know me past the crafts - I was a programmer for many years and now develop the website for my business (Creative Pursuits) and the Loose Bead Society of Greater Milwaukee.  That reminds me... I need to add upcoming show information to my business website!  Lots to do!

Now all my readers must be asking, "What on earth does WYSIwhateveryousaid have to do with beading or scrapbooking or anything that you usually talk about?"

Well, nothing in the very literal sense.  (Also see www.nothing.net.  Check out the recipes.)  But I was reminded of it recently when I went to bead.

On August 26, 2011 I purchased orange Delica seed beads (DB744, Matte Transparent Orange) because I was going to make sushi California rolls out of polymer clay and wanted beads around the edges for the flying fish eggs (Tobiko).  When I went to make them, though, the beads turned out to be too large.  I found orange microbeads that worked perfectly:

I made a bunch of things with these California roll slices.  The rings are available on Etsy if you're interested.

Okay, polymer clay is definitely WYSIWYG, but that's not what I'm here to discuss.  It's those orange Delicas I bought over a year ago.

Orange is not my favorite color.  Orange is possibly my least favorite color.  I'm not fond of yellow, gold, or brown, either.  Those are all colors Steve likes (depending on the shade of orange, he says).  Decorating in our house is always fun.

So what am I going to do with these very bright, nearly glowing beads?  Look at 'em:

Makes my Transitions lenses darken.

They're really only good for one thing.  Halloween.  So I designed a Jack O' Lantern to wrap around the skeleton keys from my "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key?" design (that link is to Etsy, not Wikipedia this time).

Now we get to the point of the post.  (finally)  Those glowing orange beads cease to glow when they're on their own.  You can kind of see it around the edges of the pile, but when they're stitched you can really see the difference:

I will admit that I used a black thread (Smoke Fireline, to be exact) which will darken it a little, but even just separating beads from the pile made them look so much darker.  I guess the word "transparent" in the name of the color should have been a clue, huh?

There's another acronym I just found that describes seed bead shopping:  WYSYHYG.  What You See You Hope You Get.  There have been many times that I look at a tube of beads and absolutely love the color, but when I bring them home and start using them I find that they're either too light, too dark, too close to another color, or flat out not the same color as in the store.

You just can't always tell.  Why is there so much of a difference?

Part of it is the lighting in the store.  Most of them use florescent lighting, and colors won't look the same as they will outside in sunlight or the lighting in your own home.  Florescent is cheap, so we can't blame them (much).  Many stores don't mind if you take beads over to the window to see better how they look "sans florescent", but that's not foolproof.  Maybe you can take the beads outside if you give them your wallet, phone, or child as collateral.  Don't offer your husband.  If your husband is as great as mine is, they might not give him back!  If the store has an Ott light or other natural light, that's the best way to tell what the true color is.  (OttLite doesn't have a Wikipedia entry.  It says, "Did you mean Otte?"  Since that is my last name, I had to click.  I'm not in there yet.  Darn.)

Another reason, at least for seed beads, is that they're all piled up there in their bags or tubes, and the color seems to magnify.  Beads with a bit of transparent in them are most susceptible to this.  Ask the bead store for a head pin or, better yet, bit of beading thread.  It shouldn't be a problem to string a number of the beads onto the pin or thread to see how they're going to look.  I would do this at the counter so they know you're not trying to steal any beads, and there's less of a chance of losing any.  If you're going to use them with other beads, bring those along and put those on a pin or string, too.  Probably best to use a different string so they don't accidentally mingle.  Put the pins/strings next to each other and see if there's really the contrast you thought there would be.

This isn't just for transparent beads.  I bought two different colors of purple peanut beads for my "Shadowed Diamonds" design.  They look completely different in the tubes, but once you get them out and start using them there's very little difference.  I guess I should have known - the color numbers are only one apart.  Once they're stitched they look fine, but if you accidentally mix the beads up, you have quite a hard time separating them.  I know from experience.  Here's the bracelet:

Huh - they look really similar in this picture, too.  If you're interested in the tutorial, here's the Etsy page for the PDF, and a kit with black/white/gray.  If you're interested in the finished bracelet, I have that, too.  :)  I can't do the purples right now, though.  I'm having a problem finding the beads.  I'll have to find other purples that will look nice and be easier to separate.

Or it could be bling frenzy.  We're so blinded by the shiny objects (Really?  "shiny objects" redirects to "SpongeBob Square Pants: Battle for Bikini Bottom?"  That's ridiculous.  Oh.  It's a video game in which shiny objects are the game's currency.  Still...) that the color isn't easily detectable.  This is a hazard primarily with Swarovski crystals, especially the AB or ABx2.  The light reflects off of those facets, and we lose all control and buy two or three packages of each color we see.

Okay.  That last one isn't completely true.  But the first two are - lighting and grouping.  See what you can do to see how the beads will actually look, and you'll do just fine.

Back to the orange beads.  I wanted to use them all up, so I made a bunch of embellished bead tubes, ala "Tubed Key, or Not Tubed Key?".  I made a necklace and earrings:

I showed this to Kim who is the owner of Knot Just Beads, the store where I taught the "Tubed Key" class this past Saturday.  She loved it and said I needed to design a whole series of holiday patterns for the keys to sell at the Milwaukee Bead Show which is coming up October 7th.  I've already come up with quite a number of patterns and have stitched one of them - an Easter egg - and will be stitching up each of them as examples.

So since I used up all but 10 of my orange Delicas...  I bought another package as well as other colors perfect for holidays and seasons that I didn't already have: red, blue, green, pink, and a few fall colors.  I skipped yellow, though.  A girl's got to have her standards.


This blog post was brought to you by the letter W for Wikipedia.  Whatever did we do without Wikipedia? (Yes, each one of those is a separate Wikipedia link, including the question mark.  "did" and "without" are a little sparse, but there are actual pages for them.  I'm a getting a little loopy now and Steve is verbally poking me to be finished.  Time for bed!)